Note 2038 — I.—PHÆNOGAMOUS OR FLOWERING PLANTS. (continued 16)

Personne, though he admits the activity of the resin prepared by Smith’s process, contends that it is a mixed body, and that further purification deprives it of all volatile matter and renders it inert. This is not astonishing when one finds that the “purification” was effected by treatment with caustic lime or soda-lime, and exposure to a temperature of 300° C. (572° F.)! That the resin of the Edinburgh chemists does not owe its activity to volatile matter, is proved by their own experiment of exposing a small quantity in a very thin layer to 82° C. for 8 hours: the medicinal action of the resin so treated was found to be unimpaired.